Draft on Tap?

NYT on the recent "surge" of draft rumors: See It Now

Okay, set aside the actual issue of a potential draft for a moment. We all thought it was coming right after the '04 election and it didn't, but that won't stop many of us from worrying that it's coming any minute now, and Bush's denials are impossible to lend any credence to, mainly because they are issuing from the mouth of one GW Bush, a mouth known to lie about 10 times for every truth it utters.

Here's a laughable yet frightening quote from the article; note the transition between the two paragraphs:

William A. Chatfield, director of the Selective Service, said Friday that “we try to send out a signal of strength that we’re prepared.” The Selective Service, he said, needs to be ready “if something totally unforeseen should come upon us.”

But for now, the chances of that happening are “very, very, very low,” Mr. Chatfield said. “There’s nothing even being discussed in a remote fashion, but you have people trying to create fear when there’s nothing there.”

Did you get that? The chances of "something totally unforeseen," happening are "very, very, very low." I'll repeat: The chances of "something totally unforeseen," happening are "very, very, very low." Aren't they always? Does this give you any confidence in the selective service apparatus at all? Because it scares the yule log right out of me.

Am I alone in seeing this as possibly the stupidest piece of "reasoning" ever to emanate from any Bush official? And, BTW, to hear BushCo tell it, wasn't the whole protracted insugency/useless quagmire/lack of WMD thing "totally unforeseen"? And isn't this the same brain trust among whom: "No one could have imagined them taking a plane, slamming it into the Pentagon... into the World Trade Center, using planes as a missile." The unforeseen seems to be par for the putt-putt course with these guys.

Conversely, the chance of Christmas coming on Monday remains high, as long as you're not one of the 10 or 15 American "volunteers" who will die in Iraq or Afghanistan before then. And if you are one of them or one of their comrades, Standing Eight loves you and thanks you and wants you brought home, alive, victorious or not, as soon as possible.